Bradford threw nearly underhand and his hand was known to scrape the ground as he pitched. He was very effective against right-handed batters, but less so against lefties.

Bradford once pitched 74 games without allowing a home run, a major league record until Peter Moylan broke it in 2009. He was particularly effective in the postseason, posting an ERA of 0.39 (1 earned run in 23 1/3 innings) over 10 series. However, much like a LOOGY, he did not have a single decision in the postseason. In the regular season, he only posted 10 or more decisions in 3 out of his 12 seasons, and never more than 13, even though he pitched as many as 78 games, and made 561 appearances overall.